Dead Man Rising (2 of 2) [Dramatized Adaptation]

Written by Lilith Saintcrow

Narrated by A Full Cast, James Lewis, Yasmin Tuazon and 14 more

Bounty hunting is a helluva job, but it pays the bills. And it lets necromance Dante Valentine forget her issues. Like struggling with her half-demon side and the memory of her lover's death.

Now psychics all over the city are being savagely murdered and a piece of the past Dante thought she'd buried is stalking the night with a vengeance. Too bad she's got no way to tell which fiend — or friend — to trust. Or that her most horrifying nightmares are gathering to take one kick-ass bounty hunter down for the count.

But that's only the beginning. The Devil just called. He's looking for Dante's lover – the one he killed…

• Language: English
• Publisher: GraphicAudio
• Release date: Jun 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9781648793424

Lilith Saintcrow

Lili Saintcrow lives in Vancouver, Washington, with a library for wayward texts.

Reviews for Dead Man Rising (2 of 2) [Dramatized Adaptation]

[jalenv_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Graphic Audio gives the listener sound effects, music, and a full cast -- not unlike recordings of old radio shows that I've heard. Even the best narrators I've listened to seem to have a bit of trouble with their 'characters of the opposite sex' voices. That problem is eliminated with a full cast.Dante Valentine, transformed into a part-demon by her late and much lamented demon lover, had a truly horrific childhood, thanks to being sent to a school with a predator headmaster. I wish that the author had let us know what happened to the social worker who hadn't believed the student brave enough to tell her what was going on once the truth came out. I want to know, especially because of that student's death. Well, this is a dramatization, so perhaps the answer was in the book.Now some of those former students are being murdered in ways worthy of a supernatural-slasher movie. One of the victims was a normal human. How does he fit in? Luckily, Ms. Saintcrow let her heroine figure out how the killer was getting to the victims reasonably quickly. There were things I didn't expect, which was nice. My own childhood abuse was extremely mild compared to what Dante went through, but it was enough to make the climactic battle something that would have been my worst nightmare.Dante goes on and on about how much human cells dying stink now that she has a demon-enhanced sense of smell. Makes me wonder how her demon lover endured her stench when she was just human.Two of the major events of the book were no surprise whatsoever and an action Dante took in CD 4 annoyed me tremendously, but on the whole I found the book worth my time. I hope my local library gets more Graphic Audio books because I've enjoyed both the titles I've checked out.

[sdramsey-298717 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Dante Valentine's adventures continue in this second book of the series. Although these urban fantasy books venture sometimes into areas a little darker than I generally like, I just flip those pages really quickly. :) I like the complexity of the character(s) and the layers of the world the author has built. Will definitely read more!

[letora · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This time around Dante needs to come face to face with her haunted past at Rigger Hall and the atrocities committed against its students, including Dante. We see how the twisted school helped forge the badass yet damaged Necromance, and just how deep the scars run. Dante would prefer to never be reminded of the Hall, but someone is murdering former students and Gabe turns to her for help.
Saintcrow quickly became a favorite author of mine due to her characters. They are deeply flawed and strive to redeem themselves on a daily basis, shoving aside the perverse past that is never far from their mind. But Dante isn't just battling her own demons, guilt is bogging her down and the confusion over her new abilities as well.
Everywhere she turns people are seeing her half demon self as revolting, not that it was much different as a human Necromance, but she's battling to accept herself and her new limitations.
Despite Dante's grief stricken inner monologue, we are still able to see the strong woman inside and recognize that everyone breaks down at some point. And when Dante snaps back, there's hell to pay. Another quick fun read, filled with action, gut wrenching emotions and satisfying redemption and revenge.

[drled_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Synopsis: Dante's past is haunting her and killing people who were in the same horrible school she attended as a child. Her lost demon love still haunts her and Lucifer is still trying to influence her. Jace loves her and is still trying to protect her, but while Dante is fond of him, she cannot give herself to him.Review: There is lots of action and lots of angst. The mystery is pretty good and the interactions give insight into the characters. This was a well-written book.

[illise_montoya · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've never been a fan of the star rating system on this site. I don't think a range of five is nearly broad enough to really summarize my overall feelings on a book. Hell, TEN isn't even enough. If I could rate this book on a scale of 1 to 20, I'd say 14. On a scale of 1 to 10: 7. On a scale of 1 to 5: 3 1/2. I'm certain the ratios are a bit off, but more importantly I hope my feelings are clear. "Dead Man Rising" is a decent enough sophomore effort by Saintcrow, but I felt it was slower paced in comparison to "Working for the Devil." That may have been my warped perception, however, because I kept anticipating an event to take place, and while I found everything happening in the book interesting, the plot couldn't move fast enough toward this thing I wanted so badly. Once I let go of my constant anticipation, I found I enjoyed the story a lot more, and was able to appreciate how it was unfolding before me.

In this installment of the series, Dante is considerably depressed and struggles with her feelings quite a bit. When a series of murders in Saint City resurfaces the painful history of her past, Dante's angst and martyr-complex kicks into overdrive. If you found these aspects of this character frustrating in the first book, you might want to skip out on this one, because Dante's pain and suffering practically cries right off the pages. The redundant thinking that I noted in my review for the first book is still present in this one, but I found it less frustrating as there were less instances of Dante repeating aloud her internal thoughts verbatim. Dante's depression isolates her from the rest of the cast, so there wasn't as much interaction with others, with the exception of Jace, and even then their interactions weren't especially long or numerous. Character development for the auxiliary cast was minimal at best. All that said, we spend a lot more time with just Dante narrating, and that in turn affords us with a more detailed view of her world. I almost feel like DMD was Saintcrow taking the time to better round out the cyberpunk setting. We meet some new characters in this book, some of whom I find fairly interesting, and I hope they make a return in other books. The climax, just as the first book, was suitably epic and a fantastic arrival to catharsis.

So all this said, I'll admit that it did take a level of patience for me to finish "Dead Man Rising", but I still blasted through it, and in the end I was thoroughly satisfied.

[lacello · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I only read this one to see if Japh was really dead. Again, the urban fantasy part was pretty good, but Danny spent alot of time whining and moaning and bitching, and walking all over Jace. I hated that, there was more of a connection between Jace and Dante then there ever was between Dante and Japh. I liked the Jace the most out of all the characters. When he died, I cried. This is where the series ends for me.

[mlsimmons-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I did not like this book nearly as much as the first book. I was sick of hearing about Japhrimel and Jace. To be one hundred percent honest, at one point, I thought to myself "Is this book New Moon?" (I know this book was written before New Moon, but I read New Moon first). I love the world, the different psions and demons. I enjoy the detective part of the story. I still like the series enough to try the third book, I just hope it is better. I have faith!

[maybedog · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I'm on page 64 and I'm beyond sick of her whining, feeling sorry for herself and morosely dwelling in the past. She keeps saying she can't help against a serial killer who is killing her acquaintances because it brings up bad memories. All she does is think about her bad memories! What a self-absorbed whiner.

[pagemasterzee · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Still excellent writing but it does not live up to her first novel "working for the devil". This book, second in the series of who knows how many, is important to a continuing store line and you learn so much more about the main character's past. But the majority of individuals who will read this book will figure out the ending before they have finished the first few chapters. This book although still as addicting as the rest in the series will leave its reader unsatisfied.

[jjmcgaffey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not quite as good as the first Dante Valentine, but still good. She spends an awful lot of the book hurting - both in pain and doing damage to herself and others. Not so much physical as mental and emotional. I _hope_ the events here help her clean out some of her clogged-up emotions - the question of Jace and Jaf is pretty much finished by the end of the book, anyway, and Rigger Hall should be more or less handled. She's also making interesting and influential friends. There are major changes in her life and in the people around her, mentioning any of which would be major spoilers, so I'll try not to. But she's seriously oblivious to some major hints - from the Devil, and from Jaf before. OK, I saw them - I'm not hurting and dealing with being in a new body and trying to deal with it by being to busy to think. But still - it got annoying after a while. And then she did the right thing entirely by accident - meaning to do something else. Anyway. Interesting world - oh, and thanks to the glossary in the back it is clearer that this is a possible future - the old 'Merican Republic' existed until the middle (end?) of the 21st century, then things changed. Huh - and the sedayeen sound awfully like the Lightbringers...now I have a different question about what universe this is. Fun. I _like_ Saintcrow's books.

[joyfiction_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fun foray into the paranormal. Thoroughly enjoyable. A definite fun read.

[jlparent · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not as good as Book 1, but still engaging enough to make me want to continue in the series. A bit of trimming of a couple of repetitive sections would have made it alot stronger. I did like learning more about Dante's past and that her world continues to get richer and more complex. On to book 3...

[bookwormteri · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Such a rich world for Dante! Ms. Saintcrow has created a complete world that is so familiar, yet so different. I like that she doesn't explain the differences, just lets them unfold. I could not believe that she killed off one of the main characters and can only hope that she finds a way to bring the character back. Love the second in the series, looking forward to the third.

[krau0098 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I really, really liked the first book in the Dante Valentine series by Lilith Saintcrow. Dead Man Rising (the second book in this series) was a disappointment.You meet up with Dante (Danny) a short time after her hunt in the last book and the "death" of Japh. Dante has been recklessly taking bounty after bounty to distract herself from her grief over Japh. Jace shows up to help her out on her bounties and has forsaken all of his connections with the mob for her. Gabe ends up calling Danny in on a grisly murder and Danny finds that these murders may be linked to something that happened at Rigger Hall (the horrible school where Danny was first educated as a psion and tortured, etc, etc).This book had a lot of action but it wasn't nearly as interesting and crisp as the first book. This book makes no progress in Danny understanding her new half-demon nature. Danny spends most of the time grieving over Japh's death and, when she is not whining about how much she misses Japh, she is sitting around talking about how horrible Rigger Hall was and how she can't bear to even enter the place or think about it. I thought it was all a bit over the top and dramatic, even for Danny. I mean the Rigger Hall incidents were years ago. We all have bad memories from childhood, and hers were much worse than most, but in the first book she seemed to be a reasonably well-adjusted person despite her tough beginning. She spends this whole book whining, grieving, and falling to pieces. I understand Danny is going through rough times but, come on, that doesn't need to be the content of the *whole* book.I found myself rolling my eyes at Danny's dramatic and strange behavior a number of times. I was hoping all of this was going to lead somewhere profound but even the climax of her facing her fears at Rigger Hall fell dead for me. I really, really hope the third book is better. I liked the first book a lot so I will read the third, if the third follows the second I am done with this series. So in summary this book was passable but not nearly as good as I was expecting.

[kace_12 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Still confused over some things, but still appreciating the style the author has in that she doesn't overexplain, just lets things naturally unfold. The writing is a little redundant at times, repeating the same thought 30,000 (maybe less) on the same page. I know its supposed to lend the character the feeling of confusion, of "what the hell" but once you read it 30,000 times on the same page (maybe less), you either give up, or just skip over the echos, cause what the hell, it gets old.Still, going to go out and buy the rest of the series today, cause I keep finishing the books very quickly, and run out of things to read. I love it when an author can create a completely new world that (though depressing and in dire need of some Televangelists ;b ) is very intriguing.

[laurenbethy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I liked the first book a lot and I was really excited when I got my hands on this book. However, I was pretty disappointed due to the fact that the book is very heavy and tragic--Dante just can't get a break. I have no objections to sadness, but Dante spends most of the book grieving and having nightmares about her past. After a while it just got tiring. Also, I don't know what it is like to have a new body but the continual phrase, "smell of dying human cells" got annoying fairly quickly. As much as I like the idea of Dante Valentine, the general slowness of this book combined with reviews of the next three books have convinced me not to continue on with the series. Stick with book one.

[lewispike · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is quite an uncomfortable book - deliberately so and really quite nicely done. We find out rather too much about Rigger Hall and its history, and as a consequence quite a lot more about why Dante is the way she is.Something is killing psions who were at Rigger Hall, and the police are baffled. They call in Dante and Jace who eventually, and with some surprising bits along the way, Dante beats the bad guy down and gets some closure.Also lingering through here is Dante's mourning for the death of Japh, which is very nicely handled.I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like Dante to come for a weekend visit, but I find her a good, interesting hero for this series. She is flawed, but the flaws make sense and you see her work on them and her change over the course of the book and the series to date.

[crishaynes · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Although by book end, I did enjoy this book, the entire book was very slow paced. ****SPOILER*****It was ever excrutiating to read the entire book before having Jaf re-enter the storyline, which you know will happen by the title alone. I liked Jace and am sad to see him go but I see it as a necessary evil as this was a very unhealthy relationship for her and it makes her reuiniting with Jaf much easier. Not much plot in this book. Although, you do learn alot about her past. So giving it a background storyline made it interesting to follow but made the book drag. I am glad to see Jaf back and cannot wait to get book 3. I know she will learn a lot about what she has become and the plot will move much faster from here. This book, however slow, was necessary in the overall story arc.

[woosang_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book bridges the gap between book 1 and the death of Japh and book 3 where Japh is back.
This book deals with Dante's grief and her way of coping bu throwing herself into any form of work she can find.
When she gets asked to help in a police case where people from her old school are being murdered so horribly that their ghosts cannot tell secrets, she has to face her own grief and horrible nightmares of her past to help the people who helped remove a sadistic headmaster ten years ago.
A lot of people wanted another book like book one, but for the character to grow she has to work through her intense grief at losing her lover and closing her cycle of dispair. I found it a good story, not as absorbing as book one, but just a good. We see Dante overcome her greatest fear and triumph. (We know this as there are more books)

[cabri_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This 2nd book in the Dante Valentine series was a step down from the first book, Working for the Devil. During this novel, Dante is forced to confront the demons of her past (literally) while at the same time grieving for the death of Japhrimel. I would've like this much more if the author hadn't gone over the happenings in the first book time and time again while at the same time giving us quite obvious clues that perhaps Japhrimel wasn't dead after all. I love the characters in this series but I'm currently having problems getting past the 4th book because I'm afraid the 5th book will be nothing but a humongous summary of the first 4 books with maybe a simplistic plot involving Dante not trusting Jaf. Again.

[amberwitch · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A very disappointing sequel to Working for the Devil.Instead of a competent and selfconfident necromancer, Dante has turned into an angsting, introspective and selfpitying part demon. The repetitive descriptive passages, as well as the numerous bouts of selfpity and endlesly reminders that Vaslentine is now part demon pads a very thin story considerably.The storyline is very far from logical, and I find it very hard to understand the loyalty Valentine inspire, or connect this whining irrational person with the Valentine of the prequel.Valentine has been hunting bounties with ex-lover Jace since the events of Working for the Devil to forget her dead demon lover. When her police friend call her in on a nasty case she is forced to face her childhood at Riger Hall, a facility for psycics, run by a monstrous headmaster.

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This story would merit a re-read of the first book in the series. For a good while in the story I was slightly lost as to what happened before.There are people dying. The links aren't obvious. Dante gets involved. She's still getting used to her new self, geting used to the fact that Japhrimel is dead, getting used to Jace as a partner.It's interesting but it took me a little too long to get back into the story, I really will have to re-read both again soon. It's still an interesting and involved story and a well-drawn world.

[phantasma_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It would have been much better if my favorite character had been there from the beginning, but there's always the next novel!

[jshillingford_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Working for the Devil left readers in suspense as to the true fate of Japhrimel, Dante's demon familiar given to her by the Devil. Dante's newest case is even more dangerous than the last as Necromances begin turning up dead. Dante needs to find the killer before she becomes the next victim. This sequel follows through on the potential of the first book, but does not quite meet it. There is less mystery here, and more personal angst, but I still enjoyed it. It was fast paced and well written, with witty dialog. Highly recommended.

[mels_books · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's a little exhausting to read a Dante Valentine novel. Not that they're bad. They're across the continent from bad. It's just that the author holds nothing back. The world and the characters are so intense and their problems so insurmountable, their situations so dangerous that you're on the edge the whole time you have that book open. These are not easy, formulaic books. I like that.This is the second book in the series. Danny is forced to face the horrors of her childhood in a state run boarding school for psychically talented children with a headmaster who violently feeds off of them. Years later, omething's systematically hunting down a group of her former schoolmates and her cop friend Gabe asks for Danny's help. As Danny tracks down clues and kicks some ass, she tries to work through the baggage the events of the first book left her with: injuries, pestering letters from Lucifer(yes, THAT, Lucifer), the memory of her dead demon lover, her new half-demon status. And then there's Jace. He left her years ago. Danny found him again in the last book, and now he hangs around, helping her with bounties, seemingly content to just be with her. She feels guilty she can't give him more.And that's just Dante. All of this angst exists within the framework of a futuristic, gritty, cyberpunkesque world that sucks you in, makes you think about it when you're not reading it.No, these are not easy books. But they're more than worth your time.

[emrya_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A great second novel, Saintcrow never quite does what the reader expects, lending surprise a big boost. Dante Valentine continues her soul searching and butt kicking.

[kusine_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I didn't expect to like the first book in this series, but I did. I didn't think the second one could be as good or better, but it was.